2nd case of Hantavirus reported in New Mexico leaves boy fighting for his life

George Hernandez hadn’t heard about “Hantavirus” until his 9-year-old son, Fernando, was identified as having the condition days ago just.

Initially, Hernandez thought his child was ill with the flu. He was nausea and missed a complete day of college around Jan. 28, but his father sent him when he began to feel better. “I said, ‘You’ll end up being alright, ‘” Hernandez told Fox News. “He visited school, however when he returned, he was beginning to get worse. ” The concerned dad rushed Fernando to a close by medical center in Farmington, New Mexico, where he was admitted for 10 times. Doctors ran testing after X-rays revealed places on his lungs.

Without a confirmed diagnosis, Fernando premiered from a healthcare facility, along with some medicine and a few oxygen tanks. He was informed to rest. “His lungs will get rid of, ” Hernandez recalls doctors informing him. However they later didn’t – and times , ” issues got really bad, ” Hernandez said. Fernandez couldn’t breathe by himself and was taken back again to a healthcare facility. His condition was therefore serious, a healthcare facility airlifted him to Children’s Medical center Colorado in Aurora.

Once again, doctors ran several testing, but everything returned negative. “They didn’t know very well what the hell was heading on, ” Hernandez said. ” These were like a mechanic, selecting at things occasionally. ” At one stage, doctors suggested mold caused the Fernando’s symptoms. Hernandez named an expert to inspect his home in Farmington even, but it returned clean. Fernando’s heart almost stopped and he underwent several surgeries before getting installed to an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, a medical device that gets control the responsibilities of the center and lung area by pumping and oxygenating someone’s blood.

This full week, Hernandez finally got a remedy: Hantavirus, a rare illness that’s spread through connection with infected deer mice or their urine or droppings. It’s rare. As of 2017 January, a complete of 728 cases have been reported across 36 states, based on the Centers for Disease Control and Avoidance (CDC). Nearly all cases were reported in states of the Mississippi River west.

The Hantavirus, which kills a reported 36 percent of victims, can’t be passed from one person to another. “Farmington is a farming community plus they reveal it’s in the soil. I had my child help me clean the backyard 8 weeks ago – I simply really wish it wasn’t that, ” Hernandez stated, adding that the sickness gradually attacks your body and symptoms don’t show up right away. Fernando may be the second case to end up being reported in Farmington this whole year. The other day, Julie Barron, informed Fox Information her 27-year-old child, Kiley, had the uncommon disease.

“We can’t relax and let things such as this be swept beneath the carpeting, ” Barron said. ” I’d like many people to find out about the virus and also to keep carefully the name in open up communications, to ensure that nobody else must go through this. No one. ” Hernandez got touching Barron after reading on the subject of her daughter’s condition. The pair intend to continue steadily to spread the expressed word hoping of warning others locally.

“I’d never heard about this Hantavirus until my child and [Barron’s] child, ” Hernandez said. ” We have to obtain it out there. There are many people like me who didn’t even understand. People have to know it exists. ” Fri to cover medical expenditures for the boy family setup a GoFundMe page, who has been about life support for 21 days. “There’s no cure. Everything simply depends upon the individual’s body, but my son’s disease fighting capability for some reason isn’t fighting it at all, ” Hernandez stated. “It’s chaos at this time. “